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Haiti donors conference in New York

Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power is attending an international donors conference aimed at co-ordinating financial assistance for Haiti in the wake of the country's devastating earthquake last January.

The conference in New York is being chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in cooperation with the Haitian government.

Mr Power is to pledge €13m from the Government over three years towards helping the long-term reconstruction effort.

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He said the advent of the rains in Haiti only highlighted the need for action.

Haitian Finance and Economy Minister Ronald Baudin has said that the country was hoping to obtain commitments of just over $4bn over three years, $1.3bn of which would be delivered in the first 18 months.

Haiti was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere before the magnitude 7.0 quake struck on 12 January.

Up to 300,000 people were killed and the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, was destroyed.

Estimates of the total damage inflicted by the earthquake range between $8bn and $14bn.